LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Leontyne Clay Peck has always been interested in her family's story. Growing up she wanted to know more about her father's family -- who she says was the only family with the surname, "Clay" in Piedmont, West Virginia. She says her two decades of research have been a calling.
"If any of your ancestors were enslaved as mine were, it’s not as easy to make those connections,” says Peck.
More than a year ago, Peck started a film about her family's history. It's called "Clay 1613". She traced her history back to the Henry Clay Estate, Ashland. She found ancestors who were enslaved on the estate. Her research uncovered more than she'd expected it to.
She explains, "The connection to some of the people who are clay descendants. You know like Muhammad Ali, of course his last name was clay. But we didn't know that we were related to any other people outside of Virginia."
Curators at Ashland have been working to learn more about the more than 120 people who were enslaved on the estate. They’re looking to learn more about who they were and what their lives were like.
The Henry Clay Estate’s chief curator, Eric Brooks, explains, "It is a complicated process to unearth the stories of the enslaved. They were not able for a variety of reasons, they were not permitted generally to create records of their own lives."
Ashland has a copy of a ledger of enslaved people, and their work. Brooks explains the rarity of two photos of two men who were enslaved and the story they tell. Peck is preparing to screen her film for the first time in this city, at the Lexington History Museum. Brooks says this history is important in understanding who we are as a society today.
"We provide a lens to see not only the past but the present in a new and unique way, to have a greater understanding, perhaps a greater chance of understanding that were all together in this, it's all interconnected,” says Brooks.
"Clay 1613" is a little more than an hour long. Peck says she doesn't want people to be angry about the past but to learn from it. She wants other families to learn more about their own history.
Peck says, "To use the past as a bridge to make a better future for all of us -- and when I say all of us, I mean the international community because we're all connected in some way.”
Peck says this project isn't just about her family. She wants to bring a voice and justice to the lives of the enslaved.
